My latest build is the Me 262 from Trumpeter. It has been a while since I have built anything in 1:32 scale, as I have been on a 48 scale kick. I will be building this bird as yellow 4 from KG 54 as depicted on the EagleCals sheet.
I also will be using the very nice landing gear from G-Factor and the BarracudaCast Resin wheel set, both of which are amazingly detailed and direct replacements for the kit parts.
I built the cockpit as per the kit instructions (here it is only dry fitted to the fuselage)
Also you can see the Cannon bay almost complete.
I built both the Jumo 004 engines as per the instructions, painting them with Model Master Metallizer paints, and then decided that I will be closing one nacelle (right engine) and will open the forward and bottom panels on the left engine.
Here you can see into the main gear well with the kit supplied details, I have since re-worked this area with additional piping and wiring, sealed with Future and then a artists oils wash of black and burnt umber. This same wash was applied to the cockpit and cannon bay.
I will be building her with the cannon bays open as well as the left engine and radio compartment access panel. So far the fit has been fairly good, even considering I have added wiring inside the fuselage. I have been doing a lot of reading, and it seems that most of the 262’s had all their rivets an joints puttied and sanded smooth, so trumpeters rivet detail, although subtle might be a bit inaccurate. Several builds that I have seen the builder has gone through the effort of smoothing all this out, but I think that I will not do that.
I have also added a bit of .030 to the top of the left engine nacelle to serve as the bottom of the wing. Next I have to work out how to build the mounts for the engine to enhance the level of detail there.
The cockpit is well detailed, directly from the box, although if I could do it again, I would thin the back of the plastic instrument panel so the instrument faces are not so deep. The only detail that I added was an O2 line on the left panel made from two different diameters of wire.
Nice start, I have the same kit in the stash, so will be watching this.
I got the G-factor undercarriage for an Me 109 and it looks really nice and was thinking about doing the same for this. So will be keen to see how they are. Do you have the early or late set.
So shooting it with a couple of coats of primer and sanding that down to mostly cover the rivets, in spite of how it would look, would be the more-accurate thing to do? Hmm, I have a couple of these in my stash I’ll have to look at.
Gene - in the Osprey book on the 262, the author masked off around the seam lines on his 1/48 scale example and filled the seam with Tamiya putty and liquid cement. he said that once dry and sanded smooth it filled the seams nicely and gave a good scale appearance. I was thinking of priming with Tamiya grey primer (rattle can)then just painting as is. Since I am going for a bit of a worn appearance and there is the standard camo with an additional layer on top of that, I think that it should be ok.
Since the last time that I posted pictures I have completed all the interior washes, positioned everything in it’s place inside the fuselage and sealed it up. Be sure to install the nose gear prior to gluing the fuselage halves together, as it becomes a royal PITA if you don’t. Lucky for me, I remembered at the last minute and was able to install without any drama.
The panel in front of the cannon bay is the first part I have encountered that doesn’t fit as it should. I didn’t take a picture before the fix, but if the panel line was flush on one side (horizontal panel line) the opposite side had a triangular shaped gap that was wider towards the rear. I used tenax 7R on one side and once set applied massive pressure and cemented the other side. On the right hand side there is now a small overhang that will need to be sanded smooth and details restored.
I am pleased at how the cockpit turned out, even the stiff P.E. belts look almost natural.
Here are some photos of the main gear well after the redesign and weathering.
And what the flash reveals of the radio compartment
A couple of detail shots of the engine that will be exposed
Thanks for looking! Hope to get some more work done on this beast this weekend.
Nathan, all the silver wires are simply unpainted solder, with tape for the brackets. For the yellow wiring, I used either the copper innards from a bundle, twisted together or 28 gauge wire, all painted before attaching to the wheel wells. The wiring on the instrument panel was painted after attaching though. Hope that helps. All the wiring bundles took the better part of a day to get done.
Here is the latest update: Completed the main wheel sub assembly and attached the main wing. Had to dry-fit several times to try and get a flush fit, but wasn’t completely successful. Here is a picture that shows where it is now, after some heavy sanding, adding back the rivet detail and filling the huge seam line with putty.
Just about every major seam on the bottom of the aircraft needed a touch of putty, not sure if it is because of me or just minor flaws in the molds. At any rate this gave me plenty of opportunity to practice masking the offending seam, filling with squadron white putty and smoothing it out with Tamiya lacquer thinner. This has worked like a champ and greatly reduced the chance of losing details.
Other work has included filing down the attachment points for the main landing gear so that they will fit, I added a wire to the bottom left corner of the armored glass (represents electrical power for windshield anti-ice, as well as the Revi gunsight with wiring as well. All the flaps and ailerons are attached to the main wings. Will be attaching the rudder as well as dry fitting the horizontal stabs prior to painting.
Soon it will be time for the primer and that complicated camo scheme.
Thanks again for looking and all the wonderful comments.
Once again, thanks to all for the encouraging comments. Been a long time since I have posted a WIP thread.
I have a bit more progress to report: Here is a picture of dry fitting the main gear as i mentioned last time:
After a bit of masking I primed the bird with Tamiya fine surface primer (L) from a rattle can and then pre-shaded the panel lines with black. Once that was complete on went the RLM 76, and these photos show the results so far. All the primary paints will be the MM acrylic paint lines, unless the colors look too far off, then I will go with the color of eagles paints.
Thanks for looking!
Next will be the RLM 81 and 82 for the splinter camo. Once that is complete the real fun begins.
